The 8.0 pre-patch for World of Warcraft‘s next expansion, Battle For Azeroth, is now live. Battle For Azeroth, which arrives on Aug. 14, is set to rekindle the classic hatred between the game’s two factions, the Alliance and the Horde.
The expansion will also bring a set of new raids and dungeons as to be expected with any new WoW expansion, but the game will also see a variety of new features introduced, some of which are already live with the pre-patch.
Here are the 10 upcoming features for Battle For Azeroth that we’re looking forward to most:
The Stat Squish
A central problem of long-running MMOs like WoW is that the player’s numbers have to continuously get bigger and bigger in order for the player to feel more powerful. When the original game released back in 2004, player health pools topped out in the thousands of hit points. Today, everyone is running around with absolutely massive numbers on their stat sheets, many of which have climbed into the millions. Players can deal out an equally massive amount of damage and it’s gotten to the point where there are so many large numbers flashing across the screen during combat that it can be hard to keep track of exactly how well you are performing.
Blizzard first fixed this problem back with the Warlords Of Draenor expansion when the first “stat squish” reduced item levels throughout the game. But that old problem of players accumulating ever-higher numbers over time never really went away and players are once again putting up some over-the-top numbers in the twilight of Legion.
With the 8.0 patch, the game’s second “stat squish” is now live, once again restoring player power to a reasonable level. We can report that combat just feels better and it’s much easier to track how much damage you’re pumping out, thanks to the stat squish.
Simultaneous Worldwide Launch
Blizzard is trying something it’s never done before. Battle For Azeroth will release worldwide at the same exact time around the world. That means that while the street date is technically the 14th August, the game will be going live at 3pm PT on the 13th August if you live on the west coast of Amerca. This will be the first time The Americas will launch an expansion at the same time as the European servers. We won’t have to watch Twitch streams of people who are in time zones ahead of us as we wait for our own launch time to arrive. Everyone can log in and start playing together simultaneously.
If you’re worried about the servers crashing under the load, Blizzard developers have said repeatedly that the game’s phasing technology that they’ve been working on over the last several years will allow the expansion to launch worldwide without a hiccup. Fingers crossed.
War Mode
Blizzard has tried multiple times to bring back classic-era world PvP and nothing has really stuck in a way that fans of the old Southshore vs. Tarren Mill battles would like. Battle For Azeroth will introduce the developer’s latest attempt, and we’re pretty optimistic about this one.
War mode is essentially a toggle that will allow players to switch PvP mode on or off at will, regardless of what kind of server they are located on. Players who complete quests with War Mode turned on will reap additional rewards. Players will also have additional PvP talents that are only active during War Mode. With no flying in Battle For Azeroth until next year most likely, this could make running into a player of the opposite faction exciting and nerve-wracking again.
Warfronts
Warfronts are 20-player cooperative battles inspired by Warcraft 3. Players will work together to build a base, research upgrades, and work together to attack the opposing side, controlled by an AI. It’s like Blizzard sat down and figured out a way to bring a RTS mode to World Of Warcraft.
One of the first Warfronts will be fought in Arathi Highlands, a classic zone that’s gotten some nice visual upgrades for the expansion. Anyone who loved queuing up for Arathi Basin back in the day will probably appreciate the feel Blizzard is going for throughout the zone.
Island Expeditions
Players who were around during Mists Of Pandaria might recall a dungeon mode called Scenarios, which involved teams of three players instead of the traditional five. Island Expeditions will bring a similar feel, with groups being tasked with plundering treasure off various islands. Your team will face off against other players or AI-controlled characters from the opposing faction and whoever can collect the most treasure, or “Azerite,” will win.
Blizzard has promised a wide variety of different islands to explore and it’s nice to see the return of another kind of group content to complement traditional dungeons. The idea seems to be that the islands are randomly generated to a certain degree just like Rifts are in Diablo III, so there should be no shortage of content to play through.
But our absolute favorite part? The AI Blizzard designed for the opposing faction is pretty good at mimicking real players. They’ll even jump in the air repeatedly as they move forward, just like players who repeatedly spam their space bar while moving in dungeons or raids.
More Allied Races
The tail end of Legion saw the introduction of Allied Races, which introduced two new races for each side to play as. Battle For Azeroth will continue to introduce more, with Dark Iron Dwarves and brown-skinned Orcs included in the upcoming choices. Blizzard hasn’t confirmed much about what other kinds of races might show up, but there’s plenty of datamined info out there for those who want to take a look. Allied Races start at level 20 after a short scenario and players can earn a special set of cosmetic armor if they level the character all the way to 1110 without buying a level boost.
Weapon Drops
If you’ve been away from WoW for some time, you may not know that the game’s Legion expansion focused on powering up an impressive “Artifact Weapon” throughout the duration of the expansion. In short, players have been using the same weapon for about two years now. Artifact weapons were pretty cool and bosses did drop Relics which were used to upgrade them. But after two years of using the same weapon, many players are looking forward to the thrill of having an actual weapon drop off of a raid boss again.
The weapon slot is arguably the most powerful character slot in the game and we’ve missed the excitement that comes from finally getting that massive two-hander to drop after farming a boss for six weeks. That feeling will be restored by the end of the summer.
Darnassus and Undercity Drama
Blizzard has gotten better at storytelling as time has gone on, and there are a number of interesting plot lines that players will be exploring throughout the expansion. One of the first will include a Horde invasion of Teldrassil during the 8.0 pre-patch. We know the Horde will be burning that big tree to the ground, but we don’t know who is lighting the match yet.
The Alliance is supposed to respond by attacking the Undercity, but the exact details are also a bit hazy. Long story short, we could be looking at each faction losing a major city right at the start of the expansion. What will happen from there is anyone’s guess. Blizzard is good at keeping surprises under wraps and the fact that no one is exactly sure what is going to happen over the next few weeks makes this expansion all the more exciting.
Easier Professions
Just like player item levels, the game’s professions have become pretty bloated over time. Blizzard has made some updates to the leveling process before but Battle For Azeroth will feature a skill squish that should smooth things out considerably. Instead of having to level hundreds of points before you can start crafting Battle For Azeroth items, each expansion will have its own separate skill tier. In other words, you can start crafting Battle For Azeroth content right away, while the gear and items from other expansions will each feature their own separate counters. Your first Battle For Azeroth item will put you at 1/150 on the counter for the new expansion, no more grinding needed.
Legacy Loot
If you love running old content for transmog items, you’ll love the new legacy loot system. Whenever a player enters a dungeon or raid where they are 10 or more levels above the content, the dungeon or raid bosses will drop an amount of loot equivalent to what would have dropped for a full group when the content was current. That means players could earn loot for five people in dungeons and loot for 20 people after soloing a raid. The legacy loot system will also drop other gear types, like cloth dropping for a plate wearer. It will be much easier now to get the transmog gear you want and you’ll also be able to collect gear for your alts on the same run.